BITHINK: Bifacial thin industrial multi-crystalline silicon solar cells

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 03.0086

Key words (English)

Solar cells; multi-crystalline silicon; thin wafers; bifacial

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: 503105

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 6. Frame Research Programme - 1.6.1 Urspr. Progr. Sustainable energy systems

Short description (English)

See abstract

Abstract (English)

The aim of the Project is to reduce significantly the cost of PV energy through the development of albedo bifacial modules. These modules will incorporate low cost and high efficiency bifacial silicon solar cells. Bifacial solar cells will be done by a new industrial technology of thin silicon solar cells manufactured by an integral screen-printing technique and using a BSF structure. Previous work, made in part under the sponsorship of the European Commission (Venetian PV project from Joule III), has shown the viability of 14+14% efficiencies in screen-printed biracial solar cells made on CZ silicon material. This new proposal is oriented to obtain a low cost (under 1.6 €/Wp) crystalline technology over a multi-Megawatt facility to be implemented at the end of the project. This work will focus its activities on:
· Using of multi-crystalline silicon to produce bifacial solar cells
· Higher efficiencies in the bifacial solar cells produced: 16+16% using n-type CZ material and 15.5-11% on multi-crystalline material
· Developing new processes and automated equipment to handle, with high yields (higher than 90%), thin silicon solar cells (lower than 130 micrometers)
· New on-line evaluation technique, able to fit multi-crystalline thin wafers and bifacial technology.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 03.0086